Hay-press



.NITED STATEs PATE T OFFICE.

CHARLES ALEX. HAMILTON, OF MERIDIAN, MISSISSIPPI.

HAY-PRESS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 357,480, dated February8, 1887. Application filed August 6, 1686: Serial "o. 210,244. (Nomodel.)

To aZZ whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, CHARLES ALEX. HAMIL- TON, a citizen of the United,States, residing at Meridiamin the county of Lauderdale and State ofMississippi, haveinvented a new and useful Improvement in Cotton or HayPresses, of which the following is a full and clear description.Thisinvention is an improvement in that particular class of pressesknown as perpetual, continuous, or reversible, andin which the materialto be pressed and baled is fedinto the pressbox in successive chargesthat are successively acted on by the reciprocating follower, the latterbeing operated by a pivoted reversible sweep or lever,which is soconnected with it as to permit it to be thrown back by the elasticity ofthe pressed material after reaching the limit of its positive forwardmovement.

My invention consists in a particular construction, arrangement, andcombination of parts, as hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure lis a plan view,thclever andfollower being shownin full lines in-the starting position, and thelever in dotted lines in the position it occupies after the follower hasbeen forced into the box and has rebounded. Fig. 2 is a side viewshowing the parts in the same position as Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is another planview, but showing the fol.- lower at the limit of its forward movement.Fig. 4 illustrates a detail.

The press-box or condensing-chamber A,into which the material to bebaled is fed at a, may be constructed in the usual manner. The followerB has rearward extensions 12 at its corners, that serve as guides duringits sliding movement. The pitman or connecting rod G is pivoted to therear side of the follower and slotted throughout its entire length, savethe heads.

The reversible lever D, to which the horse is attached, has a large flatmetal head, E,which is constructedwith a hub, e, that is keyed orotherwise secured on the vertical fulcrum;

shaft F.

Thelever proper, D, is securely bolted to this head on one side of thefulcrum F. The other side of said head is broader and provided with acurved slot, d, that is eccentric to the fulcrum F, its ends beingfarther from the latter than its middle portion.

The 'pitman G is loosely attached to the head D by means of a bolt, f,that passes through said slot, as shown.

To relieve friction I apply a loose flanged sleeve, 9, to the bolt, asshown in Fig. 4. The slot of the pitman receives the lever-head E andallows space for it to work in, as required.

The operation of the press is as follows: When the follower is .in theposition shown in full lines, Fig. 1, the pitman O is at the limit ofits rearward movement, and the cotton, hay, or other material to bebaled may be fed'into the press-box at a. The horse attached to theouter end of the sweep D then moves in the direction of the arrow (thusforcing the follower forward and into the press-box) untilthesweeparrives at the position shown in dot-ted lines, whichis at nearly rightangles to the longer axis of the press-box A. During this movement thebolt f of the pitman has occupied the end of the slot farthest from thefollower; but so soon as the lever passes'beyond the point justindicatedthe bolt is free to slide in the slot, and the follower is forcedsuddenly and rapidly backward by the resiliency or elasticity of thematerial in front of it, so that the parts resume their originalrelation and position, save that the lever is then on the other side ofthe press-box, as shown in Fig. 1. In other words, the backward pressureof the material forces back the follower B, and the pitman-bolt f slidesaround to the rear or farther end of the slot d, which movement ispermitted by the slot of the pitman that receives the projecting portionof the head E. The slot d is slightly enlarged or cut out at its ends onthe side nearest the fulcrum F, Figs. 1 and 3, thus forming roundedshoulders. The function of the latter is to hold the bolt a littlelonger on the dead-center than would be practicableif the slot were ofuniform widththat is to say, they hold the pitman-bolt f until the shaftF, the bolt f, and the pitman O and follower B are all in line, or on adead-center, as shown in Fig. 3, when the bolt f is released by slidingoff the shoulder it engages. Y Whenon the dead-center,there is no draft,so to speak, on the horse end of lever,

and it can therefore be moved either way with slightforee. Therebounding follower,pitman, and bolt, the latter traversing the curvedslot, gradually lose momentum until the other or opposite shoulder isreached, where the side stroke given by the curved slot takes up anytendency to reaction of the lever or sweep. There is no jerk or jar onthe team.

I am aware that it is not broadly new to p rovide a reversible sweep orhorse lever with a slot and to connect the pitman with it, but theconstruction and arrangement have been differentfrom mine and notcapable of operating in a similar manner and with like advantage.

Vhat I claim is- 1. The combination, with the press-box, reciprocatingfollower, and slotted pitma-n, of

ver D and its head E, which is pivoted een trally at the end of saidpress-box and provided with aeurved slot, as shown and described, forthe purpose specified.

CHARLES ALEX. HAMILTON.

\Vil'nesses:

J. V. KNIGHT, G. \V. \VALTON.

